George de La Hele: Missa Praeter rerum seriem
El Leon de Oro, Peter Phillips, Marco Antonio Garcia de Paz
Author: Dr. Matthias Lange
Just because it contains the first of the spectacular “Missa Praeter rerum seriem” by George de la Hèle, this album from El León de Oro is absolutely essential to listen.
The Spanish ensemble El León de Oro, under the label Hyperion, focuses on a tradition that usually receives little attention: the compositions arising in the context of the Capilla Flamenca, founded by Philip II during his reign (1556-1598), was entirely devoted to the Franco-Flemish contrapuntal tradition. During this time, young choristers from Flanders were brought to the royal court in Madrid, which allowed over the years the growth of a considerable cast, which, along with other prominent additions, helped to ensure continued artistic production and vocal performance.
The programme focuses on the “Missa Praeter rerum seriem” by George de la Hèle (1547-1586), which lasts for more than half an hour. This mass for 7 to 8 voices is an interpretation of the impressive and gloomy motet of the same name, by Josquin Desprez, which served as inspiration for contemporaries such as Ludwig Daser, Cipriano de Rore, Adrian Willaert or Orlando di Lasso. The mass takes up the density and character of the original work, incorporating a second soprano in a moderate manner, and allows the music to flow through extensive textures, over the heavy sound gravity of the motet. De la Hèle transforms Josquin’s work in a surprisingly fluid way, and it is equally surprising that, according to Peter Phillips’ commentary in the booklet, this is the first time that this magnificent mass has been recorded.
In the second part of the programme, other works are presented. First, Pierre de Manchicourt (c. 1510-1564) with three large double motets. Philip II seemed to hold him in high esteem, and before arriving in Madrid, Manchicourt worked in Tours, Arras and Tournai. At the Spanish court, he was in charge of both the Flamenco Chapel and the Royal Chapel, the latter normally under Spanish influence. Manchicourt inherited the style of Gombert, composing in a rigorously imitative way, expressing emotions subtly in the structure of the pieces. Peter Phillips comments in the brochure that Manchicourt could be “seriously funny”. A manuscript of his “Regina caeli” indicates that he should sing “without breathing and without points”, which meant omitting the pauses and dots from the dotted notes in the lead voice, whereas the second soprano began four notes after the first but finished five notes before, resulting in linear missteps and rhythmic changes.
Nicolas Payen (c. 1512-after 1559), little known, represents the early years of the Flemish Chapel. His severe “Virgo prudentissima” is, due to its imitative structure, also attributed to Nicolas Gombert. The programme concludes with Philippe Rogier (c. 1561-96), a voice that stylistically had already distanced itself from the ideal formulated decades earlier by Philip II, exploring with freshness emerging techniques of the Baroque, as the Venetian double corality and rhythmically active structures, without canons or strict imitations. Rogier, as Peter Phillips correctly points out, presages the arrival of continuo bass.
A sound event of fascinating beauty.
The Spanish choir El León de Oro, founded in 1997 by Marco Antonio García de Paz, alternates in this recording the conduction of its founder with that of Peter Phillips, the English conductor and founder of The Tallis Scholars, with whom it maintains a long collaboration since 2017, Phillips being the honorary conductor of the ensemble.
The chorus, composed of 38 voices, in addition to its impressive sound richness, remains faithful to the ideal of concentration and clarity. The sopranos shine without excessive corporeity, the intermediate voices are clear and characteristic and the basses anchor the ensemble with solidity. The result is a fluid combination between the sonorous grandeur and an astonishing intimacy, almost as if it were a group of soloists. Peter Phillips seems to reconcile these two ideals in his conduction, achieving a continuous intensity of great clarity, a true sound event of dazzling beauty.
The ensemble maintains a stable and free intonation throughout all the tesituras, even in the moments of greatest strength. The recording, made in the church of the Real Monasterio de San Salvador de Cornellana in Salas, Asturias, captures a sound of great size and substance, clear enough, without losing the charm of the vocal ensemble.
The premiere of the splendid “Missa Praeter rerum seriem” by George de la Hèle makes this album with El León de Oro an indispensable listening. It also focuses on a late flowering of vocal polyphony and a peculiarly autonomous cultural exchange that was influential for several decades: the Flemish Chapel as a central force at the end of the Renaissance.
Link to the original article: https://magazin.klassik.com/reviews/reviews.cfm?task=record&RECID=40253&REID=20858
